"You will be hated by all for my name's sake" (Matthew 10:22). "If the
world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you.... If
they persecuted Me, they will persecute you" (John 15:18 and 20). "Then
they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death; and you
will be hated by all nations for my name's sake" (Matthew 24:9).

Our Lord's words apply-as indeed they must - to every age, our own
included, and today not only in Communist countries but throughout the
Muslim world. Item:Elements of the Egyptian army attacked a
Coptic monastery last week in a hit- and-run raid to inspire terror. Item: A few days ago a Muslim mob of some
four thousand burnt a Coptic church and destroyed the homes of
Christians in a town about 18 miles from Cairo, as the army stood by.
Item: A high-ranking Catholic member of Pakistan's government, the
Minister for Religious Minorities, was shot dead because of his
audacious efforts to moderate his country's blasphemy law, which
imposes the penalty of death upon anyone judged to have spoken
disparagingly about Islam or about Muhammad. This murder comes on the
heels of the murder of Saiman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's
largest and wealthiest province, the Punjab, for the same reason, a
month ago. May I share with you the account of the Muslim
assault on Egyptian Christians as provided by the Assyrian News Agency,
followed by a report of the murder of Pakistan's Minster for
Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, a report printed in the Wall Street Journal for March 3,
2011.

A mob of nearly four thousand
Muslims has attacked Coptic homes this evening [March 5, 2011] in the
village of Soul, Atfif in Helwan Governorate, 30 kilometers from Cairo,
and torched the Church of St. Mina and St. George. There are
conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the Church pastor, Father
Yosha, and three deacons who were at church; some say they died in the fire and
some say they are being held captive by the Muslims inside the church.

Witnesses report the mob
prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. The army, which
has been stationed for the last two days in the village of Bromil, 7
kilometers [less than 5 miles] from Soul, initially refused to go into
Soul, according to the officer in charge. When the army finally sent
three tanks to the village, Muslim elders sent them away, saying that
everything was "in order now."

A curfew has been imposed on the
12,000 Christians in the village.

This incident was triggered by a relationship between 40-year-old Copt
Ashraf Iskander and a Muslim woman. Yesterday a "reconciliation"
meeting was arranged between the relevant Coptic and Muslim families,
and together with the Muslim elders it was decided that Ashraf Iskander
would have to leave the village because Muslims torched his house.

The father of the Muslim woman
was killed by his cousin because he did NOT kill his daughter to
preserve the family's honor, which led the woman's brother to avenge
the death of his father by killing the cousin. The village Muslims
blamed the Christians.

The Muslim mob attacked the
church, exploding 5-6 gas cylinders inside the church, pulled down the
cross and the domes and burnt everything inside. Activist Ramy
Kamel of Katibatibia Coptic advocacy called US-based Coptic Hope Sat TV
and sent an SOS on behalf of the Copts in Soul village, as they were
being attacked by the mob. He also said that no one was able to contact
the priest and the deacons inside the burning church and there was no
answer from their mobile phones.

Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub
reported the mob had broken into Coptic homes and had called on Copts
to leave the village. "Terrorized Copts have fled and some hid in homes
of Muslim neighbors," he added. [Note that not all Muslims are
terrorists].

Witnesses said the mob chanted
"Allahu Akbar" and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church
plot after razing it.

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A more refined kind of attack is
about to be visited upon a Christian institution (viz.,the traditional
understanding of marriage) and upon the liberty of a Christian
conscience right here at home in the U.S.A. I am referring in the first
instance to the recently announced
decision by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to refuse to defend against future court
challenges the DOMA law, the Defense of Marriage Act, which
defines marriage as a legally recognized union between one man and one
woman, and in the second instance to Mr. Obama's announced
decision to remove from existing law the protection of the right of
pharmacists, medical practitioners and hospitals to refuse, on grounds
of conscience, to provide certain services or products.

I reprinted here last week the
protest lodged by America's Catholic bishops against the new Obama
policy on DOMA, as opening the door to legal reprisal against
those refusing to participate in non-traditional "marriage" ceremonies.
Here is a report from a private blog on the new threat to freedom
of conscience in the world of medical practice.

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Obama
Makes Good on His Threats to the Catholic Church
Kevin Collins

In January 2009 Barack Obarna and his ... Congress had a choice. They
could ram through the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), appeasing the
abortion-hungry Left, or let it sit while they rammed through "more
important items" like Obamacare and Card Check .... Their sense of the
situation told them they probably couldn't do both.

Now after a series of stinging defeats on Card Check and the ever
dirnming chances of Obamacare's actually (being implemented] ...

Obama has ordered Kathleen
Sebelius, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), to start threatening
medical professionals who, for reasons of personal conviction, will not
dispense drugs that cause miscarriages - in effect aborting fetuses....

Obama has unilaterally stripped
away the "Conscience Clause" put in place by George Bush....

HHS claims its rules "...never intended to allow providers to
refuse ... medical care to individuals because [such]
behavior [was] found objectionable..." A more practical view of the
consequences of this new ruling, is the eventual closing of Catholic
hospitals.

Dr. J. Scott Ries of the Christian Medical Association is very
concerned about this decision. He predicts two outcomes: A - Rather
than disobeying God's law, a number of health care professionals will
walk away from their jobs, and not yield to Obama's law; and B - When
that happens, faith-based hospitals will close or drastically cut
services to their communities.

Fighting Back

Helped by pro-life Democrat Dan Lipinski from Illinois, Republicans
Chris Smith of New Jersey, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Dr. John
Fleming of Louisiana are fighting
back with HR 358 the "Protect Life Act" and HR 361 the "Abortion
Non-Discrimination Act." Help these men. They are fighting for us. Call
them to let them know you support them.
Dan Lipinski 202-225-5701
Chris Smith 202-225-3765
Joseph Pitts 202-225-2411 and
John Fleming 202-225-2777
To contact your congressional representative check this link:
http://www.contactingthecongress.org

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And here is a report on the latest
anti-Christian atrocity in Muslim Pakistan. .

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Minister is Gunned Down in
Pakistan
Zahid Hussain and Tom Wright The Wall Street Journal
March 3, 2011

ISLAMABAD - Suspected Islamic
militants shot dead the most senior Christian in Pakistan's national
government, in the latest sign that political moderates backing
the U.S. are failing to rein in a growing wave of Islamist extremism.

The second killing this year of
a politician who has stood AGAINST the country's blasphemy law, which
sanctions the DEATH penalty for insulting Islam, threatened to
further destabilize a country where secular-minded
politicians are increasingly imperiled
by a rising strain of Islamism in the middle classes.

The chilling climate was
highlighted in a video made by the latest victim, Shahbaz Bhatti, the
Minister for Minorities' Affairs, to be released in the event of his
death.

The U. S. has attempted to bolster moderate
elements of Pakistan's society and combat religious extremism with huge
disbursements of civilian aid, but the targeting
of politicians who espouse secular
views and are viewed as supporting the U. S. complicates this strategy.
Ties between the two countries have hit new lows after a U. S. Central
Intelligence Agency contractor in January was detained after shooting
dead two armed men in Lahore.

The government of President Asif
An Zaradi, a U. S. ally, recently DROPPED moves to REFORM the blasphemy
law, fearing a backlash from extremists.

Mr. Bbatti was traveling in
Islamabad to attend a cabinet meeting when three gunmen opened fire on
his car, police said. The assailants dragged Mr. Bhatti from the
vehicle before shooting more bullets into him. He died on the spot
after receiving at least eight bullet wounds.

The killers, who escaped,
dropped leaflets saying they had acted in the name of the Punjabi
Taliban and Al Qaeda because the government had put an "infidel
Christian" in an important position.

"Bhatti's murder is the bitter fruit of appeasement of extremist and
militant groups," said New York-based Human Rights Watch in a
statement.

Mr. Bhatti, a 42-year old
Catholic, had sought a reform of the country's blasphemy law,
which rights groups say has been used to persecute Christians and other
minorities.

Salmaan Taseer, a former
governor of Punjab province who also opposed the law, was gunned down
in Islamabad by his police bodyguard in January. The guard, who said he
was angered by Mr. Taseer's stance, has become a national HERO for
Islamist groups.

Secretary of State Hilary
Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee she was "shocked
and outraged" by the assassination. She called Mr. Bhatti, whom she met
last month in Washington, a "courageous man" who was aware of the
threats against him.

Mr. Zardari condemned the
killing of Mr. Bhatti and ordered an official inquiry but didn't
mention the blasphemy law.

Mr. Bhatti, who faced
assassination attempts six years ago for his SUPPORT of rape VICTIMS,
recorded a video in December in Dubai with First Step Forum, a
Finland-based Christian human rights group, which made it public
Wednesday. In the video, Mr. Bhatti says repeated death threats from
militants wouldn't deter him from supporting Christians and other
minorities.

"I will die to defend their
rights," Mr. Bhatti says.

Targeted killings of
politicians have created a newfound feeling of insecurity in Islamabad,
a city that had been successful in stopping large-scale terrorist attacks for
more than a year. Militants have responded by moving to more limited
attacks, like Wednesday's shooting, which are harder to guard against.

The killing of Mr. Taseer by a police officer who was meant to protect
him also has shown how hard it is to rely on Pakistan's security forces
to guard against attacks because of widespread sympathies with
militants.

Fearing for his life, Mr. Bhatti had
asked authorities for a bullet-proof automobile in recent months but
hadn't received one, said Johan Candelin, executive director of
First Step Forum. Wajid Durrani, Islamabad's police chief said Mr.
Bhatti was provided protection in view of the threat to his life but
was traveling without his security detail at the time of the attack.

The death of Mr. Bhatti shook Pakistan's small Christian community. Christians are the largest religious
minority in the country, where about 5% of the 180 million population
are non-Muslims. "We have lost our most courageous spokesman," said
Akram Massig Gil, a Christian member of parliament.
[Emphasis added].

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Radical Islam is not the only
religion that is hostile to our way of life. Extremist
environmentalism, a kind of secular pantheist pseudo-religion, can take
its place in line, too. In 2008
environmentalist spokesman Steven Chu stated forthrightly: "Somehow, we
have to figure out how to BOOST THE PRICE OF GASOLINE to the levels in
Europe." Like, let us say, to $10.00 a gallon or more? President Obama chose Mr. Chu to be the U.
S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY.